City displays American flags for holiday

COATESVILLE – The city will see red, white and blue align Lincoln Highway from First to Fifth Avenue, by an effort of the Coatesville Community Policing Committee displaying American flags for July 4.

“I believe that this flag display will be a huge plus for Coatesville,” John Pawlowski said, a member of the Coatesville Community Policing Committee, CCPC.

Members of the CCPC placed 76 flags on Wednesday in honor of the holiday that the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The flags will remain on display until July 8.

Pawlowski said several committee members call themselves “the doers.”

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“I affectionately call our group the ‘doers’ because we just don’t talk about issues, we do some positive things concerning those issues to create positive changes,” Pawlowski said.

The doers comprise of Marie Hess, Mike Zuratt and Coatesville police committee chairperson Officer Rodger Ollis and Pawlowski. City residents Anthony Shockley and Zharia Ridgeway assisted them to display the flags on Wednesday.

Previously, the doers attached brackets onto parking meters, with the help of Coatesville’s Rotary Club, in order to display the American flags. Holes, 10 inches deep, were installed in the sidewalks and the flags poles were dropped into the holes for display. Flags are 3 by 5 feet long.

American flags were displayed years ago on federal holidays as well as special events in Coatesville, he said. They display of American flags that lined both sides of Lincoln Highway from its city line to the west and to the east, Pawlowski said.

The idea to display flags was resurrected by CCPC, he said. Memorial Day was the official start of the display. However, as a show of solidarity to the citizens in Boston, Pawlowski said, flags were displayed from First through Third Avenue during the days that followed the Boston Marathon bombing terrorist attack.

The project to display the flags has completed two phases to display the flags up to Fifth Avenue.

Phase three which has no set date to start, will display flags from Sixth Avenue to Eighth Avenue. Pawlowski said the CCPC is waiting for financial efforts. Currently there are no parking meters between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. No parking meters exist beyond Eighth Avenue.

He estimated this phase will bring the total of flags to 100. So far, funding for the flag display project was provided by a local foundation, he said.

By-passers asked committee members how they could help. Pawlowski said people who are interested in joining the committee can inquire at City Hall. There are additional members on the CCPC who are active in other ways, he said.

CCPC members are active in graffiti cleanup, neighborhood trash pickup and removal, and helping with other projects to beautify of the City of Coatesville, Pawlowski said. The committee recently participated in a clean-up of vacant lots, playgrounds, city parks and along the Brandywine Creek that flows through Coatesville.

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